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Colin West, PhD

The Alda Center team is proud to recognize the amazing rock star #scicomm skills of Colin West, PhD, a recent graduate of Stony Brook University. Colin left Stony Brook and the Alda Center in June to pursue a new adventure at University of California Santa Cruz, as he secured a coveted post-doc position there in the Physical & Biological Sciences Division.

During his time at the Alda Center, Colin taught an undergraduate Communicating Science course with the Center's Improvisation Program Director, assisted with scheduling workshops for summer and fall, and helped out where ever possible around the office -- all while completing and defending his dissertation in Physics, competing on Jeopardy, and excelling in NASA's FameLab Competition. Truly impressive!

Colin has been an Alda Center rock star from the beginning and was in our first class of scientists at Stony Brook University in 2010. He has become an amazing science communicator and has made us all so proud. We are consistently amazed by his ability to engage an audience and make seemingly incomprehensible physics concepts accessible to the general public. It was this passion for science and clear and vivid communication that won him first place in the 2016 Regional Fame Lab Competition (see video below).

Here is an interview with Colin before he went to compete in the National Fame Lab competition in Washington, DC. Colin describes how his work with the Alda Center made him a better teacher and a better scientists. As a testament to his ongoing commitment to science communication, we are happy to announce that Colin will continue to work with the Alda Center as an instructor on the road.